Don't Be Rude
by Genevieve Darcy Granger
Summary: Of course, that's not really how she said it. Still it was said with love all the same. Just exploring thoughts of being parents.
The X-Mansion was full of babies. Not just children or students of Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters, but actual babies. The team of X-Men had paired up and married off with each other, and with such happiness came the next generation of mutants. Jean Summers née Grey and Scott Summers had been the first to start the 'trend'. They had a single daughter, Hope Summers. A few years later, more of the team considered having a larger family was worth the risk, so when happily married they had their children soon after. Kitty Rasputin née Pryde and Peter Rasputin had a daughter, too, just the one like the Summers family. Wanda Wagner née Maximoff and Kurt Wagner had twin boys – multiple children ran in the family apparently, because Pietro Maximoff and Jane Maximoff née Creed had two children and finally triplets. Each time Jane got pregnant was not intentional, but they were always happy nevertheless. Even Rogue and Bobby were able to have children thanks to the Professor's help. He managed to finally teach Rogue how to control her powers at will and she was thrilled to finally have the ability to be with her boyfriend Bobby fully. They took advantage of her power control immediately, and she conceived soon after to her heart's joy. It was a dream come true for her.

Of course, in the team, there were a few exceptions to the baby booming. Hank, for one, did not have a partner to conceive with, though he was happy to play uncle to the offspring of his friends. Storm and Forge, a couple, were still considering marriage to one another, though they heartily agreed that children were not for them or anywhere in their future. Their excuse was mostly that there were plenty of children at the mansion already. Logan and Darcy were very similar to them in the fact that they weren't sure they wanted to marry or have children. Logan had done both before in the past and found that it never worked out well for him. His ex-wives and children (namely just his son Daken) wanted to kill him. Darcy had never married, and never successfully gone through pregnancy, so they left that topic of discussion alone.

Perhaps it was for the better that Darcy and Logan didn't have a family together. One afternoon, Darcy was watching Jane's children while Jane and Pietro were having a day alone together – with protection because Jane refused to get pregnant again when they already had five children together. Their eldest girl, Alice who had her mother's eyes and her mother's hair and her mother's ability of telekinesis through the manipulation of green energy, was safely practicing controlling her powers under Darcy's supervision. Alice's task was to rearrange the books on the bookshelf in alphabetical order by author's last name, which required her attention to concentrated on the authors, knowing the alphabet, and being able to hold the books with her powers for various amounts of time. While she did that, Johnny – the second oldest child who favored Pietro more in looks but had ghost like mutations – played with one of his younger sisters. The sister he played with – Zoe – had her father's speed though not quite as fast. They were playing together by drawing pictures of bunnies and wolves and stars for their parents and they chatted among themselves quietly. The other two thirds of the triplet were occupied different. Raven sat by herself in a large arm chair, flipping the pages of a picture book. To most it looked like the girl was fascinated by the drawings by the way her young toddler fingers traced over the pictures, but in all actuality she was teaching herself to read. George was playing with Darcy and his most beloved stuffed animal. Of the triplets, Raven talked the least and Zoe talked the most, but George preferred to growl more than talk.

Also out of the triplets, Darcy took a shine to George the most. For some reason she couldn't quite explain, Darcy firmly believed that if she and Logan were to have a son, the son would act very much like George. So she had no problem growling back at George while he barked nonsense to her and his stuffed animal. While she played with him, her mind was stretched out to the other children to make sure they were safe and they were happy. In this moment together, Darcy felt a warmth she was sure that was only half of what Jane felt as a mother, but it was enough for her.

Distracted by the children and so caught up in being careful not to let George cut himself on her claws that he was so fascinated in, Darcy was caught off-guard by Logan when he ran his fingers through her hair. She had thought that he'd be busy today trying to grade the grueling history papers his students had to work on over the weekend, but yet here he was, hovering behind the couch where she was sitting with George. While her mouth was busy growling to George, who giggled and gurgled and growled back at her, her mind reached out to Logan and brushed against his mind with a gentle, " _Hello, Carcajou_."

Logan watched her play with George, not flinching away from her mental probing. His eyes swept over the room at the rest of the children that were his cousins? Second cousins? His family. " _Hey, there darlin'_." He answered her with ease, not minding letting this be a telepathic conversation.

The children ignored his presence in the room, not that he minded, too caught up in their own activities to really take notice of him. Darcy did much of the same, baring her teeth at George who reached up and toughed the fangs with the fascination that comes with toddler minds. Patiently letting him examine her mouth, Darcy's amber-orange eyes were trained on George while she spoke to Logan. " _I thought you would be busy grading this afternoon, my love._ "

Amused by how docile Darcy was being with George, and yet disgusted all the same, Logan answered her guiltlessly, " _Is there a question in that assumption?_ " Without his meaning, another thought escaped him that Darcy heard without him wanting her to. " _You know what happens when you assume. You make an ass out of you and me, Maple Tits._ "

Now her amber-orange eyes slid to the side as she tried to catch sight of Logan, careful not to let her jaw close on George's hand. " _Carcajou, did you finish your grading or are you choosing to procrastinate like your students?_ " She let his second comment slide, even though he used one of his many dirty pet names for her.

There a noise as Logan made a disparaging sound in the back of his throat that combined with a huff of air through his nose. " _I'm not procrastinating. There is no due date for me to have those papers graded._ " Darcy felt rather than saw him cross his arms behind her.

" _Ah, but there is a due date: the end of the semester which is about a fortnight away, my dear heart._ " Darcy was teasing him, an easy task for her to do and one of her favorite as well. By now George had removed his fingers from her mouth and was choosing to focus on his stuffed animal instead. The stuffed animal was a wolf, no surprise there. It was grey and he got it at his birth, a gift from his Aunt Darcy. She gave all of the children at the mansion a present upon their arrival on this earth.

Shifting restlessly from where he stood behind her, Darcy could feel the palpable frustration building within Logan. The Wolverine was too easy to mess with. " _I'm not one of your students, Syrup Thighs._ " He wasn't pissed off with her, per se, but he wanted something from her and was having difficulty articulating that with her, she could tell.

Once again, Darcy did not react to the nickname. If he wanted something from her, she was going to make him beg. She always did. " _Last night you were._ " George crawled on Darcy's lap, cuddling his toy wolf tightly in his arms as he leaned back against Darcy and yawned sleepily.

A growl escaped Logan's lips at Darcy's provocative teasing, and the growl immediately caught George's interest. He was no longer tired and was instead interested in the source of the growl. Twisting and turning around in Darcy's lap, he looked for the growler. "You might as well sit with us, Carcajou." Her arms securely looped around George as she spoke aloud to her lover. Her lover did as she asked and sat on the couch next to her. "Now growl again for George." Logan looked at her as if she were crazy. She went back to talking to him telepathically for her next demand. " _Don't be fucking rude_." With a sigh, Logan glanced briefly at Darcy before he growled at George.

George was delighted to have another playmate and eagerly started growling back. He tossed his stuff wolf at Logan's face, but Logan caught it easily enough. Then George proceeded to crawl out of Darcy's lap and into Logan's, still growling all the while. Logan, unsure of what was expected of him, simply watched. Darcy looked on with a small smile. " _What do I do?_ " Logan mentally inquired, his hands hesitantly wrapped around the toddler to keep him from falling off of his lap.

Darcy's answering laugh rang through the air and reverberated around the cavern of his skull. " _Smile, light of my life. He likes you._ "

Awkwardly, Logan smiled at George. The toddler promptly shoved his fingers in Logan's mouth and started to pry his jaws apart so he could see his canines. That was when Logan knew that Darcy had tricked him into this. " _How do I get him to stop?_ "

Once again Darcy laughed aloud physically and mentally. " _Show him your claws, Wolverine._ "

At first Logan wasn't sure that was a good idea, but then he remembered that Jane was the boy's mother. George would surely have experience with adamantium claws. So he carefully pushed one of his long adamantium claws out from between his knuckles for George's inspection. As soon as the claw slid out, George's fingers were removed from his mouth. "Be careful, bub. It's sharp." Using his other hand that didn't have a claw poking out of it, he guided George's smaller hand on how to touch the claw. Darcy observed them quietly; ready to intervene should something go wrong. In the background, she was dimly aware that the other children were continuing in their tasks without care with the lone exception of Raven, who was watching them curiously but shyly all the same.

For a while George maintained an interest in the claw with childlike wonder before he got tired once again. He yawned, just like before, only this time he spread himself out until he was sprawled across both Logan's and Darcy's lap. His stuffed animal wolf was in turn sprawled across his lap. With the ease that only comes with an innocent childhood blessing, he promptly fell asleep. Darcy snuggled into Logan's shoulder, and he pillowed his head on top of hers. In her chair, Raven had fallen asleep, using her picture book as a pillow. Zoe was not tired, too busy coloring with Johnny. Alice had finished her task and now came to Darcy for approval. "Good job. You're powers are advancing beautifully. Soon you'll be better than your mother." Darcy softly whispered her praise to the girl.

Alice beamed a smile, proud of herself. "What can I do now to practice?" She was young but eager to prove herself. Darcy admired her ambition and tenacity. The girl had extraordinary will power, but that was unsurprising considering her lineage.

"Try stacking those building blocks as high as you can," Darcy suggested, "but the bottom block has to be levitated by you at all times."

The young girl nodded her head, her mind already busy considering how to accomplish this. She moved away to the building blocks and the green glow of her magic filled the room as she tested her powers once again.

Fondly watching the Maximoff children in a rare peaceful situation, Logan and Darcy said nothing aloud to each other. In their minds, there was gentle teasing and a somewhat serious discussion about classroom behavior, but there wasn't talk of the future. With this, they could be satisfied.


End file.
